Nov.20 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has warned that, if next month's World Motor Sport Council were to be held today, the British grand prix would be scratched from the 2010 calendar.

After Donington's grand prix bid collapsed, the F1 chief executive and Silverstone have been locked in apparently stalled negotiations about the commercial terms of a long term contract.

A final race calendar for next season is set to be rubber-stamped by the governing FIA at its Paris meeting on December 11.

"The World Council will meet and we will just pull it (the British grand prix) off -- we will have to," the 79-year-old told The Times newspaper.

"We'll have no other choice, if we don't have a contract," Ecclestone added.

"I've been spending an awful lot of time trying make sure it does happen, but there is no chance of an exceptional contract for Silverstone. Why should there be?"

However, after Donington's operating administrators this week flagged selling the leaseholding as a going concern, billionaire Ecclestone raised the prospect of a mere one-year absence for the British GP.

And he said Silverstone is "close" to being able to sign the agreement.

"It's not the terms and conditions so much as whether the investors are prepared to bankroll them and take the risk," said the Briton.